


Of Gods and Heroes

by Vergina-SPVA (VerginaSPVA)



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Mythology, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-08-01
Packaged: 2018-04-11 05:07:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4422536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VerginaSPVA/pseuds/Vergina-SPVA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mythology AU, where Whitebeard and his sons are the gods who take care of the earth. One day, when Izou, the god of love and beauty, goes down to the earth, he meets Smoker, a human and the leader of Logue Town. It first starts with just interest, but when tragedy befalls Logue Town, both their lives get an unexpected turn. Mainly Izou/Smoker & a bit of Hina/Smoker and Marco/Ace.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for the opscifyandfantasy project.  
> The story takes place in an alternate universe with a mythology theme.  
> Thanks Aerle, for betaing!

Once upon a time, long before your ancestor’s ancestors were born, there was only one god. This god, who was known by the name of Edward Newgate, soon became lonely, and yearned for a family. So he shook the earth, creating a part of the landscape and a child to accompany him, and help him rule over this still raw draft of the planet. The first son he created was Marco, he would become the god of the skies and all that could fly. His second son was Ace, god of fire. The third was Jozu, who would become the god of wealth.

Newgate, or Whitebeard, as he was later known, shook the earth a total of sixteen times, forming the planet and creating a child with every quake. He ended with Izou, the god of beauty and love, after which he had made a child for every aspect of the earth and human life. By then, the earth was crawling with life of all kinds, and amongst the humans there were ones who had become villains and ones who had become heroes to fight them.

The gods had formed a diverse family, with all kinds of men, but there was no woman amongst the gods. All sixteen brothers and their father were very close, and had a lot of fun in the heavens. If you didn’t know any better, you would think they were a bunch of pirates or bandits, though kind and just ones. Because even though they liked to party a lot, they did take pride in guiding the world as good as possible.

Unfortunately, even the gods weren’t perfect, and couldn’t help _everyone_.

* * *

 

Hina ran back from the battlefield. They were on the winning hand, finally, and she had to check up on her daughter. When the enemy clan had attacked, all the warriors had immediately grabbed their arms to defend the village. Seeing as Hina and her husband were both warriors, they had to leave their young teenage daughter on her own. Hina was sure she could handle herself, but couldn’t help but worry. She was still a mother, after all, warrior or not.

“Tash!” Hina called out. When she didn’t get a reply, she called again, while pushing the door to their home open. “Tashigi!”

“I’m here, mom,” a small voice came from the corner of the house.

Hina hurried towards it and smiled when she found her daughter in perfect health and taking care of a few other warrior’s children. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Tashigi answered. “We’re all fine. Where’s dad?”

“He’s leading the others to victory.” Hina smiled. “The Blackbeard clan was as good as defeated when I left. It seems Curiel, god of war, is on our side today.”

Tashigi smiled. “That’s good to hear.”

It took about half an hour for all the warriors to come back, carrying the wounded and possibly dead towards the doctor’s post. Behind all the others, Smoker entered the village. He saw to it that everyone got the care they needed, before he went home. He himself only had a few superficial cuts, nothing to bother the doctors with.

He was surprised to find a small crowd around his house, consisting mainly of warriors and their kids.

One of the warriors placed a hand on his shoulder. “Another victory because of you.”

Smoker shook his head. “You fought just as hard as me and everyone else. If you want to give anyone the credit, give it to Curiel **.** We should sacrifice a lamb to thank him, this evening.” Even though Smoker was the leader of their village and was seen as a war hero, he refused to give himself any more credit than the average warrior. There just needed to be a leader, but that didn’t make him any better than anyone else. “But why is everyone gathering around my house?”

“Your daughter took it upon herself to take care of the other kids,” one of the mothers explained.

“She did?” Smoker smiled as he got Tashigi into view, standing next to two of the children who hadn’t been picked up by their parents yet. She was becoming such a good young woman already. And that while only thirteen.

“You okay?” Hina asked him as she let her hand touch the skin near a cut on his arm.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Nothing to worry about, just some small cuts, clean them up and I’m as good as new.” He gave her a kiss on her head. “Those Blackbeard idiots didn’t stand a chance.”

“Hina knows, Hina was there too,” his wife replied.

Smoker chuckled. “Yeah, you fought very bravely as well.”

Hina snorted. “Hina knows.”

“Hina knows a lot, it seems,” Smoker joked.

* * *

 

Izou was lying on a cloud, watching the earth to see if things were still going alright, when his brother, Thatch, the god of wine and pleasure, let himself fall down next to him. “Hey, how’re things going?”

Izou smiled at him. “I’m not sure yet, you tell me. Last night, the people of Shells Town had a great party, wine flowing freely. There was a lot of love going on, I can tell you that!” He winked at Thatch, who chuckled.

“Sounds pretty good, right?”

“Well, yeah, except for that it all changed this morning,” Izou said.

Thatch laughed loudly. “A hangover is part of the deal, I can’t help that!”

“That’s not what I mean,” Izou said, hitting Thatch on the head for not taking him seriously. “Take a look.” Thatch followed his brother’s gaze, and Izou continued to explain. “The love has turned into jealousy and hatred. Not like the normal guilt or anything one might feel when they shared their love with more than one person, but it’s like love has completely left their hearts.”

“Hmm,” Thatch looked down for a while. “I don’t know, man, it just looks like a terrible hangover to me.”

Izou rolled his eyes. “You only think in terms of parties and what comes after them, don’t you? Look better!” He pointed down. “They don’t even seem to care for their children anymore!”

“Well, children can be a pain in the ass when you’ve got a huge headache.” Thatch shrugged. “Hell, even sometimes when you’re feeling just fine!”

“Oh, so that’s why you’re so annoying.” Izou hit himself softly on the head as if to punish himself for a stupid thought. “Silly me, I thought you were an adult!”

“Hey, watch your tongue,” Thatch said, and gave Izou a playful push, just powerful enough to throw him off the cloud. Thatch didn’t worry, though. Since Izou was a god, he would be able to get back there within a second.

Thatch waited. And waited some more. After a while, he started to look around nervously. Why wasn’t Izou coming back?

* * *

 

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to leave the village with what happened with the Blackbeards a few days ago?” Hina asked him.

Smoker nodded. “They’ve learned their lesson, I’m sure. They wouldn’t dare to attack again with the many casualties they had the last time.” He gave her a kiss on her lips. “Besides, it would be downright stupid. You can handle them perfectly fine without me.”

“Still, wouldn’t it be better to postpone your travel a week or two? Just for the confidence of the townspeople,” Hina tried to convince him.

“I can’t afford to reschedule the meeting with the leader of Shells Town again. Especially in these times, we can’t afford to lose a strong ally.” He packed the bags of his horse. “I’ll be back in three days, I’m sure you can manage that long without me.”

Hina snorted. “Of course we will.”

Smoker rolled his eyes, not understanding the sudden switch in attitude of his wife, but glad she didn’t push any further. He said goodbye to Hina and Tashigi, and got on his horse, ready for his journey.

* * *

 

Izou looked around. There were dark clouds above the city, but it wasn’t raining. And it wouldn’t start raining any time soon either, Izou knew. But the thick clouds did block the light of the sun that had risen about an hour ago. Well, the darkness did seem to fit the atmosphere that hung in Shells Town.

“You said whenever I had it just yesterday!” one man yelled at another.

“Well, yeah, that was yesterday. Today I need my money back, so pay up,” his friend said.

A few houses next to them, a mother hit her child, who couldn’t be older than six. “Can’t you do anything right?!”

Izou frowned. The child only seemed to have knocked over a bucket of water. When he saw another man being chased out of his own home by his wife, Izou knew for sure; there was something incredibly wrong here.

“So here you are,” Thatch’s voice appeared behind him. “Don’t worry me like that again, suddenly disappearing and all…”

Izou snorted. “You were the one who pushed me off that cloud. I thought I might just as well take a look around here.”

“You’re such a meanie sometimes. You shouldn’t worry your big brother on purpose!”

“You’re hardly a big brother. Rather a big child.” Izou smirked as he ran his hand through Thatch hair, messing up his hairdo. He knew that would piss him off. “I still love you, though.”

“You dick,” Thatch said growling, trying to fix his hair.

“But seriously, something is wrong here,” Izou continued in all seriousness.

A woman walked past, looking moody, but when she saw he two of them, she stared shamelessly at them with interest and awe.

Thatch was still voicing his annoyance with Izou when he pushed a grey cloak into his brother’s arms. “At least try to hide yourself. You’re too damn pretty. People will notice who you are within no time.”

Izou smiled, but put the cloak on anyway, pushing the hood of it over his head as far as possible. “Jealous?”

“Nah, I’m content with second best looking god.”

Izou snorted, but didn’t say anything, so he wouldn’t ruin Thatch’s dream.

“But you’re right, something does seem to be wrong in this city,” Thatch said after he’d put on his own cloak.

They walked around for a bit, seeing just how wrong things were. Everyone was angry or just indifferent. One man was completely ignoring his son, while a woman almost broke her broomstick while furiously chasing a mouse.

“I was right before,” Izou voiced his thoughts. “When I said there’s no love in their hearts anymore.”

“Oh, don’t judge too quickly,” Thatch warned him, while poking Izou in the ribs. He nodded towards a side alley, where a man had pushed a woman against the wall, and was intimately touching her.

Izou frowned. “That’s not love, Thatch. That’s lust.” His point was confirmedby the fact that the woman forced her knee into the man’s crotch with a lot of power and gave him a few more kicks, even though he already didn’t seem to be able to stand anymore. Thatch and Izou looked at the scene with a face of pain.

Suddenly, Izou’s attention was drawn towards another man, walking beside his horse, who had just walked into the city square. He had two cigars in his mouth and his hair was greyish white, but despite that, he didn’t look older than forty. And he was handsome too.

But his physical features weren’t what caught Izou’s attention at first. It was his aura, which was much lighter than everyone else’s. The man spotted Izou too, and the two of them locked eyes. Their eye-contact only seemed to last a few seconds, but when Thatch coughed awkwardly, Izou realized it must have lasted a little too long.

The man cleared his throat. “Do you know what’s going on here?”

So he’d noticed something too.

“That’s what we’d like to know too,” Thatch said.

“You’re not from around here,” Izou noticed. He wasn’t sure what it was, but this man fascinated him. “Are you?”

“No, I just arrived here.” He held out his hand. “My name is Smoker, leader of Logue Town.”

Izou shook the hand. “Izou,” he said, still a bit in trance because of Smoker’s appearance. He barely noticed Thatch planting his elbow in his side.

Smoker raised his eyebrows. “As in, the god, Izou?”

Izou blinked, fighting away the haze his was in. “Uhm, yes, I was named after him.”

“I can see why,” Smoker said.

“And I’m Ronald, nice to meet you,” Thatch said, and Izou had to suppress a snort. “So you just arrived, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a meeting with Mayor Morgan, this morning,” Smoker explained. “But the city looks a lot different from the last time I was here.”

“We agree,” Thatch said. “Too bad you only arrived this morning though, you missed a hell of a party.”

“ _Ronald_ , why don’t you go check if there’s still some wine left? Didn’t you want to have some more?”

“Wha- Okay,” Thatch shrugged and walked off. He was so easy to convince when it came to wine.

Izou petted the horse’s nose, while observing Smoker from the corner of his eye. Smoker was watching him too, Izou noticed, and the god smiled. “Everyone seems to have lost their ability to love in this city, but not you,” Izou spoke.

Smoker chuckled. “How can you tell?”

Izou shrugged. “Just… the look in your eyes, I guess.” He now looked directly at Smoker. “Your wife is a very lucky woman to have you as her husband, I’m sure.”

“I… guess so.” Smoker didn’t seem to look him straight in the eyes, but instead looked a spot slightly next to Izou. “But the same can be said about you.”

Izou laughed shortly. “I don’t have a wife.”

Now Smoker looked genuinely surprised. “You don’t?”

“Nope, I’m not bound to anyone.” Izou wanted to say something along the lines of that he was in love with love, but that would sound too weird if he didn’t want to give his divine identity away.

“But…” Smoker frowned and then shook his head. “Anyway, I should get going again. No matter how weird the town is behaving, I still have to meet up with the mayor.”

“Yeah, sure, go,” Izou said, even if he enjoyed Smoker’s presence. “I hope his mood is better than the rest of the town.”

“Yeah, I hope so too.” Smoker nodded at him and then walked away, his horse by his side.

Izou suppressed the urge to whistle as the man distanced himself from the god. Those tight riding pants definitely didn’t look bad on Smoker.

As Thatch wasn’t back yet, when Smoker had walked out of his view – his brother had probably found the wine – Izou decided to take another stroll through town. He did have an idea in what direction they’d have to search to find the source of the problem, but he wasn’t sure yet. He decided to take one of the townspeople aside. “Good sir, would you lend me your assistance please?”

Before the man he’d spoken to could get angry at him, Izou had placed his hand over the man’s heart and closed his eyes. It only took a few seconds before he opened them again. The man’s heart had been coated in darkness, but was now back to normal. The heart had been poisoned, but fortunately, Izou was an antidote to every poison that could reach the heart.

The man looked at him, confused, but slightly happier than before. “What did you do? Who are you?”

Izou leaned in a bit. “My name is Izou.” He brought his finger to his lips to show it had to stay a secret. “Don’t tell anyone.” The man’s eyes widened as realization settled in and Izou quickly continued. “Now could you tell me what’s going on here?”

The man chuckled nervously. “I’d thought _you_ would know that,” he mumbled. But then he cleared his throat and said, “I don’t know… we had a great party yesterday, and everybody was happy, but then this morning, I didn’t care for anyone else than myself anymore. It felt as I was living in a world of darkness.” The man looked distressed when he thought back at it. Then his eyes widened. “Oh my go-“ His eyes shifted to Izou, before he continued, “what did I do to my children?!”

Izou placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “It’s alright, it wasn’t your fault. You can make it up to them now.” He smiled. “Do your children suffer from this curse too?”

“I… don’t think so. Maybe the oldest, but he’s at a difficult age, so it’s hard to tell.”

Izou asked the man to bring him to his children and immediately noticed that it was indeed as the man had said; the oldest son, who was about fourteen, had darkness covering his heart, the other three hadn’t. Izou healed the boy and then left the house, since the wife had walked away angrily. He now did have a fair idea about the source of the poison in their hearts, though.

“ _How_? How did you know?” Thatch said as he met up with his brother.

Izou smirked. “It was quite obvious, really. The wine had to be poisoned. The whole town has partied yesterday and they probably all drank from the wine. Besides, the children weren’t effected, so what else could it have been?” Izou didn’t mention he’d only come to that conclusion a few seconds ago, instead of when he had sent Thatch to check the wine. It was more fun when his brother thought he was a genius.

Thatch crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Well, I removed the poison from what was left of the wine, so that won’t be a problem anymore, but what do we do about the city?”

“Let me,” Izou said, and he walked towards the center of the city square again, where he crouched down. His right hand touched the ground, and he closed his eyes. He let his powers flow through his arm into the ground, and spread through the city, bringing back love to every adult in town. After that, Izou tried to sense anyone else that was still affected by the poison and cured them. When he was sure there wasn’t anyone left, he let go of the ground and stood up.

“Oh man, I love you so much, Izou,” Thatch said.

Izou snorted. “Woops, that might have affected you too.” He moved his hand over Thatch’s chest to remove the extra love he had gotten as a result of Izou’s powers. “Better?”

Thatch scowled at him. “Forget I ever said that.”

“Oh don’t worry, it should only intensify the feelings you already had.” Izou winked.

Thatch snorted. “I’ll get you for this, later. Come on, let’s go.” He didn’t wait for an answer and disappeared into the sky.

Izou cast a look at the town hall, hoping Smoker’s meeting went well, before he followed his brother.


	2. Chapter 2

From above the clouds, Izou kept an eye on Shells Town. Fortunately, everything seemed to have gone well, after he and Thatch left, and love had returned to the city. Right now, Izou was watching a particular man, who had just finished his meeting with Mayor Morgan, and was brought to an inn, where he would probably stay for the night. As the day passed, Izou kept following the actions of Smoker, as long as he wasn't needed anywhere else.

He had to leave for a bit because a woman prayed to him her fiancé would come back to her, but the guy had already fallen in love with another woman, who equally loved him back, so Izou couldn't really help her, unfortunately. Sometimes that was just part of what life was. She would find love again, in a few years, Izou would make sure of that.

When the night fell, he saw Smoker was sitting in the bar of the inn, drinking a beer, and being hit on by one of the waitresses – who obviously was more than just a waitress. However, he seemed to ignore her advances and when he finished his beer, he went up to his room alone.

Izou admired his faithfulness to his wife, and smiled. "Love is such a beautiful thing."

"Really? You obviously have never looked at fire, or you'd know real beauty."

Izou turned towards his brother and snorted. "Really Ace, _you_ are gonna teach _me_ about beauty?"

Ace sat down next to him. "Well, apparently you could still use a lesson or two. I mean the way fire dances in the air, reaches up to the sky, how it warms people, brings people together…"

"Love brings people together too, and nothing warms people like love," Izou brought up. Somehow, Whitebeard's sons never got tired of bragging about their field of expertise. They always wanted it to be better than the others.

"Oh, wanna bet which of the two can make people hotter?" Ace smirked.

"No, Ace, I don't. You'll set someone on fire. Because fire destroys people too, and that's not so beautiful now, is it?" Izou threw at him.

"Oh excuse me, if _something_ destroys people, it's love." Ace threw back.

Izou smirked. "You'd better watch out it doesn't destroy _you_ then." He winked at his brother.

Ace, who was obviously caught off guard by this comment, slowly turned red. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you don't," Izou said amused. "Ace, you might be able to fool everyone, but not me. I'm Izou, god of beauty and _love_."

"What, I can't love my brother?"

"Didn't you mean that to be plural?"

"Brothers, yeah, that's what I said." Ace stood up and avoided eye contact with Izou.

"Hey, I'm not telling you you can't do anything. I'm just stating you can't fool me." Izou smiled. "And you really don't have to hide for me that you might have more than just brotherly love for one of your siblings."

"Just shut up." Ace mumbled, still not able to look his brother into his eyes. "Or I'll burn that pretty hair of yours."

Izou's eyes widened. "You wouldn't!"

Ace smirked and looked at him again. "Try me."

* * *

He waited outside the town's best known inn, or actually, he waited in the stables nearby it, petting the nose of a white horse, waiting for the animal's owner to return. Horses possessed such beauty, such elegance, sometimes it was hard to believe they were just animals.

Izou wasn't even sure why he'd gone down again, but he called it boredom for now. He loved his brothers, and they were a lot of fun, most of the time, but sometimes he needed to go down and be around the people for a bit. And this particular human had attracted his curiosity, which was why he was waiting beside this particular horse.

Stefan, Whitebeard's dog, had just started playing with the sun by pushing it ever slowly up to the sky. Rays of sunlight sneaked into the stables, giving it a peaceful atmosphere. Izou closed his eyes and smiled when he heard the door open and footsteps nearing him.

"You seem awfully interested in my horse." Smoker's voice sounded light and not in the slightest as if he was suffering from getting up so early in the morning. "She's not for sale, if you were thinking about it."

Izou turned towards the mare's owner and opened his eyes. "I have not much use for a horse, unfortunately. But she is very beautiful."

"So if you're not interested in taking my horse, then why are you here?" Smoker heaved his bag a bit better over his shoulder, flexing his arm muscles while doing so.

Izou licked his lips barely visibly. Those muscles certainly possessed a fair amount of beauty too. "I was just on my way out of town and thought I'd say hello before I left." Yeah, he certainly hadn't come to town for the sole purpose of saying hello.

"Yeah? Where are you headed to?" Smoker asked while stepping a little closer to Izou and his horse.

Izou thought really quickly. "East from here."

"Oh, that's a coincidence, I'm going home to Logue Town, so I need to go eastwards as well. We could start our way together, if you want." Smoker took another step closer to Izou, and almost invaded the god's personal space now.

"I would like that very much," Izou said. It was not much of a coincidence that they both went the same way, though, but he kept that to himself.

"Izou, your hair is beautiful…" Smoker said and reached out to take a strand of that hair into his hand.

However, before he could reach it, Izou had batted the hand away. "Don't touch me."

Smoker frowned as he backed off. "I'm sorry, I'm normally not like this at all."

"It's okay," said Izou smiling, "I have that effect on people."

Smoker snorted. "Well, shall we get going then?" he said as he saddled the white horse.

Izou agreed, and they left town, Smoker walking beside his horse for a while, since Izou had no horse to ride on, and Smoker didn't want to be on a higher level than him. They talked mainly about Smoker's life, about his village, his family, and how his meeting with Mayor Morgan had gone – well, it seemed, as he had agreed to send help in case the Blackbeards attacked with a bigger force, next time. The Blackbeard clan was apparently at war with Logue Town and some neighboring villages, but Smoker assured him that they had had a sweeping victory on them, the other day, and didn't suspect them to be back any time soon. Still, they'd better be safe than sorry.

Izou refrained from talking about himself much, since he didn't want to reveal his true identity and didn't want to lie either, if it could be avoided.

After a few miles, Smoker offered Izou to ride on his horse, saying she could hold the two of them easily, but Izou refused. He had been on earth for quite a long time now already and felt he was being called for help as well. So he said goodbye to Smoker at the next small settlement they reached, and after having watched the man and his horse for maybe a bit too long, he went towards the temple where someone was praying for his help.

* * *

That night, there was a big party up in heaven. Apparently, there had been some kind of sea battle, and both Namur and Curiel had gotten enough offerings for all the gods to feast from. They ate a lot and they drank a lot. And whoever thought gods couldn't get drunk, was wrong. Ironically, Thatch, as god of wine, usually got drunk first. Which never ceased to be entertaining.

However, soon the whole lot of them were at least a little tipsy, and that included Izou. He didn't want to let anyone know this, because he was proud to say he was one of the best at holding his liquor – or at least at pretending to do so – so he sought out a quiet spot on the clouds to clear his head.

As he sat down, he couldn't help but peek down for a bit, to watch how Smoker was doing. Well, since it was still very early in the morning, before the sun even came up, Izou wasn't all that surprised to find him sleeping. Yet, he wasn't disappointed either. He didn't mind watching Smoker sleep for a while. Looking at the man's chest rising and falling so easily, it was somehow calming, but at the same time it gave Izou a fluttering feeling in his chest. Izou smiled. It was a nice feeling. Watching Smoker like that made him feel happy. Or maybe that was the booze talking.

"Oi, Izou, don't be a party pooper!" Haruta let himself fall down next to his brother, while Namur sat down on the other side.

"Yeah, why'd ya leave?" the god of the seas asked. "Are you tired already?"

"I'm not tired!" Izou snorted. "I was just getting a bit of fresh air."

"Oh yeah, what were you watching just now?" Haruta looked down to see if he could find the answer himself.

"No one. Nothing." Izou felt a blush creeping up his cheeks.

"Oh, someone, huh?" Haruta said suggestively. He squinted his eyes. "There's too many people down there…. Oh wait! Is it the guy with the white hair? Thatch told me you met that guy in Shells Town yesterday, and you were so stunned you just told him your real name."

"I wasn't stunned," Izou mumbled. "It wasn't like that, Thatch says a lot. He's drunk. Don't listen to him."

"So, eh, why were you watching him sleep?" Namur exchanged a look with Haruta.

Izou stood up. "I wasn't…"

"Were you thinking of giving him more beauty? Because he could use some…" Haruta said a little too nonchalant.

But Izou picked up on that a little too late. "Wow, you've got no taste whatsoever! Have you even looked at him? He's gorgeous!" He turned to get back to the party again, but he didn't miss the look his two brothers were once again exchanging.

Both began to smirk widely while following Izou towards the partying gods. "Are you," Namur began, but Haruta joined him at the ending of the question, "in love?"

"What? No!" Izou really didn't know why his face felt so hot. Of course he wasn't in love…

"I think you are~!" Haruta teased him, and increased his voice when they came into hearing distance of the others. "Izou is in love~!"

"What?" Several brothers gathered around them, and Whitebeard's roaring laughter could possibly even be heard on earth, though the humans would probably write it off as thunder.

"Is he?" Thatch asked, obviously amused by this news.

"No, I'm not." Izou tried to ignore all the other teasing comments and whistling that came his way.

"Yes, he is," Namur confirmed.

"No, I'm not!" Izou exclaimed. "I'm the god of love, I would know when I was in love! For heaven's sake, I know when people are in love! I could point out one of you who is in love!"

At that moment, Izou tripped over an outstretched leg that belonged to Ace, one of the few gods who were still sitting down. When Izou looked up at him, a shiver went down his spine. Ace's eyes almost literally shot fire. Izou had been about to tell Ace's secret to distract their brothers from himself, but the prospect of his hair catching fire stopped him from doing so. Smoker had said his hair was pretty, and Izou wanted to keep it that way.

The other gods had fallen silent, except for Thatch, who was still laughing because Izou had tripped.

Vista raised his eyebrows. "Well, enlighten us."

"Well… you wouldn't like it if I told that about you, would you?" Izou tried to avoid answering it. His hair was dear to him. "Besides, I can't imagine being the only one who noticed it, so figure it out on your own." Izou noticed a few eyes, including Marco's, barely visibly shifting towards Ace.

"That doesn't mean you're not in love though," Jozu commented. "You can probably recognize your own feelings just as well as Thatch recognizes when he has drunk too much."

Thatch snorted. "One can never have drunk _too much!_ "

Several of them chuckled, and Izou decided to sit down next to Ace, hoping his brothers would let the topic rest. Fortunately, everyone continued partying again. Izou gave Ace a piece of meat as a peace offering, one the freckled god accepted gratefully.

"So… I take it you didn't seduce him yet?" Izou said quietly.

Ace choked on his meat. "No, of course not!" he said after he'd stopped coughing. "Seriously, Izou, stop spouting such nonsense."

"He was looking at you just now, you know."

"What?" Ace's eyes shifted to Marco for just a second. "I don't even know who you're talking about."

Izou chuckled. Ace was such a bad liar. "Here, have another drink," he said as he pushed a full glass into Ace's hands. "It'll give you some more courage." Izou looked at Marco, who was standing at the side of the group, laughing at some joke Blamenco told. "You can dance with him then, or at least go sit closer to him."

The sudden splash of wine that hit him, made Izou turn back to Ace. "What the fuck?! Why the hell did you – " Only then he noticed Ace's body lying flat on the clouds, producing a soft snoring. Izou shook his head. Damn narcoleptic brat. Even though Izou was the youngest of them all, it certainly didn't feel like it. Especially when he saw Ace sleeping like a child. At a certain moment he almost even expected Ace to start sucking his thumb, but he didn't go that far after all.

Izou stood up and walked over to Marco. "Will you check if he wakes up again?" he asked, nodding towards Ace. Then he pointed at the wine stain on his clothes. "I gotta change."

* * *

Smoker stood up the moment the first sunbeams reached him. He needed to be on his way as soon as possible. If he hurried, he could be home around lunchtime. Because even if he'd only been away for a few days, he missed his family and friends incredibly. He couldn't remember being homesick ever before, but he was now. He just couldn't wait to hold Hina and Tashigi in his arms again.

While he made his horse ready to go, Smoker thought about the previous morning. The only one who could distract his thoughts from his family was Izou. A peculiar person, that man was. Izou was a bit of a mystery, and seemed to want to keep it that way. Still, Smoker had enjoyed his company a lot. Aside from his pleasant inner person, Smoker had never before seen a man he'd call beautiful. Women were beautiful, men were handsome. To be beautiful one had to possess a certain elegance, and Izou had that. He was just breath taking. He had seen that the day they'd met, when Izou was wearing a large hood over his head, and yet he hadn't expected him to be so beautiful as he was yesterday morning, when he showed up without anything to cover his hair or part of his face.

Smoker climbed on his horse, and took off. The prospect of seeing Hina and Tashigi again made him spur the mare on to go a little faster. He wouldn't go on full speed, since he would feel his muscles for the rest of the week if he did that the whole way, but a little faster than normally wouldn't hurt. He had bought Tashigi a little souvenir in Shells Town that he was sure she'd like, and couldn't wait to give it to her.

Smoker was a few hours on his way, when he saw dark clouds building up at the horizon. Damn, he didn't like riding in the rain, though the crops could use some water, so it wasn't that bad, probably. He just hoped he would be home before it came down. However, that didn't seem likely, since those clouds came towards him from the direction of Logue Town.

It took him less than half an hour before he smelled it. Not the smell of rain coming his way, but the smell of something burning. He looked at the clouds again, this time with wide eyes. Those weren't rainclouds! _Fuck, no. You gotta be kidding me!_

As he spurted his horse on some more – this time going on full speed – his dread became worse and worse as the clouds of smoke became bigger and bigger. This wasn't some bush that was on fire. It could be the forest a few miles behind Logue Town, and though he really hoped that, he seriously doubted it. When he was close enough to see his hometown on the horizon, his heart sank.

Flames rose up from the village into the sky, longing to reach higher and higher. Although, Smoker was sure this wasn't the worst they could do, so either the worst had yet to come, or it had already past. If it had yet to come, Smoker hoped from the bottom of his heart that he would be in time to save people. If it had already passed, he prayed that his family and friends weren't on their way to Atmos yet, who ruled over the realm of the dead. And if that were the case, he prayed that Atmos would send them back.

The smoke that covered the whole area now didn't really bother Smoker, but the stank was almost unbearable. It wasn't only wood that was burning. It was the whole village with everything in it, and probably the animals too. He didn't even dare to think about the people.

When he got a clear view of the whole village, he let his horse slow down. The flames had mostly died out, and there was almost nothing of the village left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued~!


	3. Chapter 3

He couldn't believe it. This could not be true. It just couldn't. What had he ever done to deserve this?

Smoker jumped off his horse and walked the last forty or so yards by foot. There was nothing left. Nothing but some smoldering remains of buildings, animals, and, he was sad to confirm, people. However, they were not nearly recognizable anymore, and Smoker had to suppress the urge to gag upon seeing their bodies.

Dreading what he would find, Smoker stepped into the burned area. Cautiously, he walked between what were once buildings. All the houses had been made of mostly wood, and so were almost completely burned down to their foundations. Only the town's hall and temple were partly made of stone, but even those had not survived the fire.

He walked farther into the remains of the village. Even if the streets looked completely different, Smoker knew exactly how he had to walk to get to his home.

Somewhere on his way, he had to step over a body that was lying in the middle of the street. He didn't dare to look down, afraid he would recognize the person. As long as he didn't recognize anyone amongst the dead, everyone he knew could still be alive. Even though he practically knew everyone in the village, and there couldn't have been that many visitors.

Smoker looked straight ahead and tried to fight the tears that wanted to take over his eyes. _Tashigi… Hina… Please… Please be alive._

He had to duck out of the way when the last remaining bit of a house collapsed onto his path, but he barely noticed it falling down. He was only focused on the lives that were lost, not the material damage. Why did this happen? How had this happened? How could an entire village burn down like that?

Smoker took a deep breath, and then noticed the baker, lying near where once his shop had been. Fuck, the baker had been such a nice, kind man. He never even hurt a fly! He didn't deserve to die like this!

Smoker noticed his pace had slowed down, the closer he got to his home, as if he didn't really want to reach it. He didn't want to see what seemed inevitable. One more corner and he would be able to see his home. Though, if he wasn't so focused on what was in front of him, he could probably see it already. There was hardly anything left standing that could obscure his view.

He took the turn.

There was nothing left. His house had completely been turned into ashes, and some pieces of half burned wood and metal. Smoker took a few steps closer, meanwhile analyzing what he saw. He first saw only material loss. No peek of pink or black hair anywhere yet.

But then he saw the arm. It stuck out from under a pile of things Smoker couldn't even identify anymore. He closed his eyes. _Please. Please, no. Let it be someone else._

When he opened his eyes again, his view was blurry. He slowly took the last few steps towards the body and fell on his knees beside it, ignoring that the ground covered in ashes was actually still pretty hot. Immediately, he started to remove the things on top of her. Because that was quickly becoming awfully clear. It was a female body. Her clothes were half burned, as was her skin and hair. But as Smoker removed the last pieces of burned material off of her, he could still clearly recognize the girl.

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he lifted her upper body and hold it against his chest. "Tash… My sweet Tashigi…" He couldn't move. He could only sit there, holding the lifeless body of his daughter close to him, as if she somehow wouldn't leave him. As if she hadn't left him already.

His mind was blank. The only thoughts that repeated themselves where 'why?', 'what had he ever done to deserve this?' and eventually 'what had he ever done to anger Ace like this?'. Meanwhile, the tears just kept flowing.

Eventually, he found some energy back, and stood up, lifting Tashigi's body, and carried her with him. He had to find Hina, whether she was dead or alive. And he surely hoped she would be there to bury their daughter together.

He looked around the remains of his house, but couldn't find anything that resembled a body or what was left of it. So he slowly began to walk down the street, this time letting his eyes wander over every inch of burned land he could see. If his wife was somewhere here amongst the dead, he had to find her. He saw a neighbor, a warrior, and a lot of bodies that weren't recognizable anymore. But no Hina, yet.

As he walked towards the edge of the village, he saw someone walking towards him in the distance. He couldn't see who, or even if it were a man or a woman, but Smoker started to walk a little faster, hoping that maybe it would be Hina.

Unfortunately, it soon became clear that this person didn't have pink hair, and was in fact a man. One of the men who had lived in his village, to be exact, even though Smoker didn't know him very well.

They met at the edge of the burned village. The man looked exhausted, covered in soot, bruises, and a few burns. "Smoker," he began, and his eyes flickered to the body in Smoker's arms. "I'm so sorry. We couldn't do anything about it. The fire came so suddenly, most of us were still asleep." He placed a hand on Smoker's shoulder, probably hoping it would give some comfort. "It was the Blackbeards. They had surrounded the village and burned down the outer circle first, so that practically no one could escape. Then they shot burning arrows towards the center of the village to speed up the process," the man explained. "There's only a few of us who could escape the fire. We've sought shelter between that bunch of trees." He pointed towards some twenty trees, a few hundred yards away.

Smoker hadn't said a word until now. "Is Hina…?"

The man closed his eyes and softly shook his head. "I'm sorry. She was near the edge of town, she could probably have made it, but she wouldn't leave without your daughter."

Yeah, that sounded like Hina. To be honest, that sounded like almost every parent. Another wave of sadness washed over him, but he felt like he didn't have any tears left to shed anymore. And he didn't want to cry in front of people of his village either. He had to stay strong for them. Smoker started to walk towards the trees, but the man gave him a look that made him stop and ask, "Well, shouldn't we go to the other survivors?"

"I think it would be best if you left her here, with the rest. As soon as we've recovered enough, we can give them all a proper burial," the man said.

"And let the birds eat her away? Don't think so." Smoker got a better grip on Tashigi's body. "I'm taking her with me."

Apparently, the man didn't dare to go against him, because he sighed and walked towards the trees together with Smoker. When they reached the spot where his people had sought refuge, Smoker concluded that the group of survivors was smaller than he'd hoped. They could be counted on two hands. And some of them were in bad shape. Still, they seemed relatively happy to see him.

"Smoker, it's good to see you," one of the warrior women, who was currently feeding her baby, said. "I honestly wouldn't know what to do if you were gone too."

Smoker laid Tashigi down on a grassy spot, and sat down beside his daughter. "I'm sorry I wasn't there on time."

The woman shook her head. "I'm glad you weren't. You couldn't have done anything about it and would only have gotten yourself killed in the fire as well."

Smoker thought differently. Even if he would have been killed, he might at least have been able to save some more people. However, he decided to keep that thought to himself.

A boy about Tashigi's age came standing next to him. "I'm sorry for your loss, sir."

Smoker smiled sadly. At least the kid had been raised properly. "I'm sure you have lost a lot as well. We've all lost a lot of loved ones today."

"Yeah," the boy said quietly. "My parents…" A choked sob escaped his throat. "And my little sister, and my brother, and my dog…" He obviously tried not to cry, but failed. One of the women – Smoker believed her to be the boy's aunt – laid a comforting arm around his shoulder.

The group sat there for a while, taking comfort in each other's company, but not saying much. Their physical wounds would mostly heal in a few days or weeks, but this mental damage would take much longer to heal.

As Smoker was the only one who was still completely healthy and not wounded – except for the few blisters on his hands from when he removed the still hot pieces of their house off Tashigi's body – he got his horse and went to the next village to get some food and a doctor.

He was back with both these things within two hours, and while the doctor went to work, Smoker sat down on a stone. Now that everyone was distracted for a bit, Smoker finally felt like he had some time for himself again. And that was when the sadness really kicked in. He hid his face in his hands.

He had really lost them. For good. Hina had been the love of his life, and Tashigi was his daughter! People weren't supposed to outlive their children. Especially not if the children had survived their vulnerable first few years. Tashigi had had such a great future still ahead of her!

He reached into his bag and got out a small sword. He had meant to give it to Tashigi when he got home, since she loved swords and wanted to become a warrior like her parents. But now he would never be able to give it to her anymore.

Smoker sat there for a while, sadness almost consuming him. But after some time, the sadness slowly started to change into anger, and hate. First, he was angry at himself for not being able to save his family and his village. But at a certain moment he realized he could have never saved everyone, and his anger directed itself at the real culprits. The people who did this were to blame for this tragedy. And he would make sure they wouldn't get away with it. Yes, he would definitely avenge Logue Town. He clenched his fists. "They will pay for this. Both of them."

* * *

Izou was shocked to find his favorite human sitting on a stone, hiding his head in his hands, trying not to cry. He didn't waste a moment and went down to earth. Of course he couldn't just appear beside him, so he landed somewhere no one saw him, and had to walk half a mile before he reached Smoker. By that time, the man had straightened his back and looked more angry than sad.

While Izou approached him, he watched the area carefully. Smoker sat with a group of people who didn't seem to be in a very healthy state, and there was the smell of fire in the air. When he looked better, he noticed a burned down town, a few hundred yards behind the group. _Dammit, Ace_.

Izou quietly came standing behind Smoker, as to not disturb the quiet atmosphere. He gently touched Smoker's shoulder. "What's happened?" he asked softly.

Smoker jumped. "Izou, don't fucking scare me like that!" He took a deep breath and lowered his voice. "Where the hell did you come from?"

"I was a few miles from here when I saw smoke rising up to the sky. Is… was that your village?" Izou didn't like lying to Smoker, but could hardly tell him he'd been spying on him from above.

"I-Izou?" one of the other people of the group said. And when Izou looked at them, he noticed the whole group was looking back at him in awe, unable to take their eyes off him. "A-are you… Smoker, are you friends with a god?"

"Please, can you take my love for my husband away?" a woman with a baby in her arms asked. "I'm begging you. It hurts… too much."

Izou didn't know what to say. He should have taken a cloak with him. He wasn't used to getting requests like that so personal and face to face. Sometimes he was present in a temple dedicated to him, but never visible to the humans, so they never knew for sure if he could hear them, even though they believed he could.

Fortunately for him, Smoker spoke at that moment. "People, calm down. He's only named _after_ the god."

The group fell silent, and the woman's face became sad again, instead of desperate. Izou felt really sorry for her, but he couldn't just take away love as soon as it became painful. That was not how life worked. Besides, he didn't even fully know what their situation was.

"Are you sure?" one of the men asked, obviously still believing that this man in front of them was the god of love and beauty. Well, Izou couldn't really blame him. He wasn't the best at pretending to be someone else.

"At least ninety percent," Smoker answered him, and he led Izou away from the group so they could speak more privately.

Izou chuckled and looked amused at him. "Only ninety percent?"

However, Smoker's face didn't show any sign of amusement. "Well, you never know it for sure with gods." He shrugged. "Besides, you've got the looks for it."

Izou couldn't help but smile. "Are you flirting with me?"

Smoker gave him an unamused, almost angry look. "I just lost my wife. And my daughter."

The smile immediately left Izou's face. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know. That was so tactless of me," Izou said, embarrassed. Had he already forgotten Smoker was crying a while ago? And that his village had burned down? Izou should have been able to conclude Smoker had lost people dear to him and he should have had a lot more tact then that. "I'm really sorry. I should just go. You probably don't want to be around someone like me at the moment."

Before Izou could really walk away, however, Smoker had grabbed his arm. However, as soon as he noticed Izou had stopped and wasn't going anywhere, he immediately let go of him again. "It's fine. You didn't know. Please stay?"

Izou smiled softly. "Alright, if you really want me to. Tell me what happened. If you want."

Smoker nodded. "You remember the Blackbeard clan I told you about? Apparently, they attacked very early this morning, around dawn. They had probably used oil or alcohol or some other flammable liquid to spread at the edge of the village, because it appears that the fire had taken over the outer circle in no time, leaving no way to escape. Then they burned the rest of the village. When I got here the fire was as good as gone, along with all that was Logue Town." He sighed. "These people are the only ones who survived. I found Tashigi's body, but I'm afraid I won't find anything more than ashes of Hina."

Izou looked in the direction Smoker's eyes had shifted towards and saw the body of a teenager lying on the ground. That was probably Smoker's daughter, but she was covered in burns and soot, so Izou couldn't say for sure.

"The doctor gave us some things to build up a camp for the night," Smoker said. "Tomorrow we'll bury the bodies that can still be found, and hold a memorial for the others. Let's hope Atmos will be kind to them, even to the people who don't have any relatives left to pay for their crossing."

"I'm sure he will be." Izou knew his brother well enough to know that he wouldn't let innocent people suffer just because they didn't carry the required one coin with them.

"Well, I hope we just get that over with quickly, because I know I won't be able to put this behind me until they've paid for this." Smoker's face turned angry again. "So after the memorial tomorrow, I'm gonna find Blackbeard and his men, and I'm gonna kill every one of them."

Izou just blinked, completely taken by surprise by this sudden change of emotion. "Are you sure that's your first priority?" Where did this sudden hate come from? he wondered.

"No, my first priority is the burial. My second priority is killing all who are responsible, and making sure something like this never happens again." Smoker shook his head. "Do you have any idea how much I loved my family? I can't stand the thought of never being able to see them again. And it's all _their_ fault. So as long as they are alive, I can't live on like nothing happened. I have to make them pay."

Smoker sat down again. "Blackbeard is a lot of talk, but when it comes down to it, he's a coward. Attacking in the middle of the night while all the children are still asleep, and making sure no one can escape? Those are the actions of a coward. A real man would have fought a fair battle. But he knew he couldn't win a fair battle, so…" Smoker put two cigars into his mouth and almost bit them in half out of anger. "Well, now he can have it. I'm gonna fight him and I'm gonna win. And then I'm gonna take everyone down who worked with him. I won't rest before I killed them all."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued.  
> (Please leave a comment, however small. It really motivates me to finish the last bit faster.)


	4. Chapter 4

Smoker had asked Izou if he would accompany him on his travel to kill the people who started the fire. Izou had agreed to the accompanying part, even if he wasn't a big fan of the killing part. They would meet up the next day at noon.

Smoker was barely able to sleep that night, and rose before dawn was even upon them. He went towards the site where Logue Town used to bury their dead. Usually, there were structured guidelines of how the people should be buried, especially when there were multiple deaths at once, for example when they had lost a lot of warriors in battle or when some sort of illness had hit their village. Usually, the highest ranked people were buried in the middle, the others surrounding them. There was also a system where some were buried on top of others, but Smoker wasn't really sure how that worked. Normally, the priest took care of these things. But now the priest was among the deceased.

The doctor who helped them the day before had promised Smoker he would send their priest to handle the burial today, so at least he wouldn't have to worry about the ritual. But there were so many dead people right now, and so many who weren't identifiable anymore, some wouldn't even have a body left to be buried. There was no way they could bury them as usual. And there were just a hand full of people left who could help with burying them, and little time to do it in, so Smoker knew that this time, it had be more simple.

He found an iron shovel in the village that was still usable, and started digging already. The slowly rising sun helped him to see what he was doing. The others woke up, and those who could still walk properly helped with collecting the bodies and digging the grave. After a while, the priestess from the neighboring village arrived, and Smoker was relieved to see she had brought some strong looking men and women with her to help them.

* * *

When Izou reached the place where once Logue Town had been, Smoker just put the body of his daughter down in the grave they had dug. He gave her two coins, and folded her hands around them. "One for you and one for your mother," he whispered just loud enough for Izou to hear.

After Tashigi, a few other bodies were carefully laid down next to her, they all got a coin in their hands as well. The priestess said a few words to ensure they would arrive safely on the other side, and then the rest of the bodies were put down in the grave. Smoker had given out all the coins he could miss, but it wasn't nearly enough for the whole village, so after the usual ceremony, the priestess said an extra prayer for the coinless and for the ones whose body had never been found.

The whole ceremony took about two hours and at the ending, Smoker held a speech about how tragic yesterday had been and how they had to stay strong. He had arranged with the leader of the neighboring village that the survivors could stay there and would be taken care of at the hospital for as long as they needed, so they wouldn't have to worry about that.

Everyone made themselves ready for the travel towards the next village. For some heavily wounded people it might become a very painful trip, but it was necessary to heal and rest properly. Some people searched between the remains of the village for things that could still be of use to them, but honestly, there was almost nothing left, and Izou pitied them. They really had nothing of their old lives anymore.

One of the men of Logue Town came to Smoker to say goodbye. After thanking him, he looked him deeply in the eyes. "You will get them for this, won't you? You're the town's hero. If anyone can make them pay, it's you."

Smoker laid a hand down on the man's shoulder. "Don't worry, I will. There's no possible future in which I will let them get away with this."

The man seemed satisfied with that answer and soon left with the other people, leaving Smoker and Izou alone.

"So…" Izou began, suddenly feeling a bit nervous for some reason. "Do you have a plan?"

"Of course I have," Smoker said, and his bag over his shoulder. "Blackbeard's hideout is known to be in the woods, a couple of miles north-east from here. I bet we can just find him there, as he's probably not expecting a counter attack from Logue Town."

Smoker looked at his horse. "So, are you ready to ride her with me now?"

Izou nodded. "Yeah, that seems like the best option, if we want to reach the woods before sunset."

Smoker agreed. "It would be best if we'd reached it by then. We could camp near the edge of the forest, since we'd only be at a disadvantage if we attacked at night. They know the territory way better than we do, after all." He held out a hand to help Izou onto the horse.

Izou looked at the hand for a second, but then mounted the animal himself. When he sat, he petted the mare and smirked at Smoker. "I know how to get on a horse."

Smoker scoffed and with one fluent movement – though he almost kicked Izou – he went to sit in front of him. "You'd better hold on tight."

 _Oh, what a terrible thing to have to do,_ Izou thought sarcastically as he hold onto Smoker's muscular torso. The touch made his heart speed up, but he didn't get much time to think about that, as the horse trotted off.

Well, that was totally not awkward; having his body so close to Smoker's while bumping up and down because of the horse. Izou tried to ignore the stirring in his nether regions. He really didn't need a boner to make this even more awkward, as his crotch was practically pressed against Smoker's ass. Izou looked around in search for something that could distract him, but it didn't really work. He just really hoped Smoker didn't notice anything, didn't _feel_ anything.

But then Izou saw the sword, dangling from Smoker's belt. "Did you already have that sword last time I saw you? I can't remember seeing it before."

Smoker hummed. "I had it, but it was in my bag. I bought it in Shells Town as a present for Tashigi."

"Oh." Izou didn't really know what to say to that. "It's nice that you keep it with you."

Smoker hummed again, and the rest of the ride went relatively easy. Izou was glad Smoker didn't seem to notice his awkward situation, or at least didn't mention it. They reached the forest an hour before Stefan finished his playing for the day, and had enough light left to set up a small tent. Smoker's idea was to go towards Blackbeard's hideout as soon as the sun had come up, so he said they'd better get to bed immediately.

Izou went with it and lay down beside him, but he didn't sleep. Gods didn't need sleep. Well, except for Ace, but he couldn't really help that either.

As Izou lay there, secretly watching Smoker, the fluttering feeling in his chest returned. Smoker was so handsome, and so nice… though the angry frown he had even while sleeping, worried Izou a bit. He just wanted to kiss the man until all the hate was gone. Kiss his torso, kiss his neck, his cheeks, and finally his lips. Until all his need for revenge would disappear.

Izou stopped to think. Smoker made him feel warm inside, gave him this fluttering feeling, and Izou had to suppress the urge to kiss him. Maybe his brothers were right? Yeah, his brothers had been right. How could he not have seen that he was in love with Smoker?

Izou sighed. Well, it would probably go away soon, right? Except, he didn't really want the feeling to go away. He liked the feeling. It made him happy. Smoker made him happy. But then again, Smoker would probably never return his feelings, as he was mourning Hina's death and still loved her very much. That wouldn't go away so easily. But just that spark of hope that maybe one day Smoker might feel the same way for him, kept Izou to want to hold on to that feeling.

Smoker was different now from when Izou met him, though. When he saw Smoker in Shells town, he noticed him because he seemed to be a kind and loving person – the only one in the city at that moment. The next day when they had traveled together, that impression was confirmed. But now, even though Smoker still seemed kind to the people around him, his love for his family seemed to have been transformed into hatred for the people responsible for their death. Looking back at that man he'd first seen in the city square in Shells Town, he would have never expected that.

That was when it hit him.

_Shit._

When Izou had cured everyone in Shells Town of the poison that corrupted their hearts, he had cured Smoker too. But Smoker hadn't needed to be healed. So what happened to him was probably the same as what had happened to Thatch. He would carry an extra dose of love with him. That love had probably been so much, that when he suddenly lost the main people that love was directed at, the only thing it could do was turn into hate. So it was Izou's fault Smoker couldn't live without getting his revenge. He really should have realized that sooner.

However, it was too late to fix it now. His anger came forth out of love, but if Izou removed the extra love now, it would probably increase the hate Smoker already felt. And if Izou gave him even more love, it would most likely have the same effect. He sighed again. He had fucked up. What a god he was.

The only thing that could probably fix this was when Smoker's wounds would finally heal, when his grieving got less, when he could give the death of his wife and daughter a place. If Blackbeard had to be killed before that, then so be it. It was really the only option. And to be honest, even Izou thought that Blackbeard guy deserved it a bit.

Having found some sort of peace in that conclusion, Izou went back to staring at Smoker. Nope, he didn't mind doing this all night _at all_.

He was alerted, however, when he heard some rustling in the trees around them. He sat up, as quietly as possible, ready to protect Smoker's sleeping form at all costs.

"Izou and Smoker, lying in a tent~." It was Thatch's voice, and Izou let out a relieved, yet annoyed breath.

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G~!" Haruta's voice sang.

"First comes love."

_Thatch, I'm gonna kill you._

"Then comes marriage."

 _You too, Haruta._ Izou got ready to get out of the tent.

"Then comes –"

"Will you shut up?!" Izou hissed as he jumped out of the tent. He looked around and found his two brothers high up in some tree.

"Will _you_ leave your love behind and come back to us?" Thatch asked teasingly. However, he didn't wait for an answer. "Didn't think so."

Haruta chuckled and started to make obscene kissing noises. "Just admit it! You're in L-O-V-E!"

"Wow, you learned how to spell today, huh? Congratulations," Izou said dryly. "I swear, if he wakes up because of you…"

"You what? Gonna kiss him back to sleep?" Haruta kept teasing him.

Thatch whistled annoyingly to support Haruta.

"You just have to admit it, and we'll leave you alone." Haruta stuck out his tongue, mature as he was.

"Okay, you were right," Izou admitted. The look on both their faces was priceless. Neither of them had probably expected him to give in so soon. "Now get lost."

"Izou?" Smoker stuck his head out of the tent. "Who are you talking to?"

Izou looked up, and saw his brothers still sitting there, grinning like idiots, but Smoker probably couldn't see in the dark as well as he did. "No one. I was just shooing away some annoying birds."

"Love birds!" Haruta imitated the sound of a parrot.

Smoker frowned. "I'm amazed I slept through that."

"Yeah, me too," Izou said as he glared daggers at his brothers, urging them to go away. "But I think they're leaving, so we can go back to sleep now."

They crept into the tent again, and Smoker immediately tried to go back to sleep.

They were surprised by one more whistle form Thatch, before Izou heard his brothers leave.

"Odd birds," Smoker commented.

"Yeah," Izou agreed. He would strangle them both when he went up to heaven again.

* * *

When the sun peeked through the leaves of the forest, Izou tenderly let his fingers run over Smoker's arm, tracing his biceps. When that didn't wake him up, Izou moved his fingers towards Smoker's chest. As soon as his eyes fluttered open, Izou pulled back his hand.

"It's time to get up," Izou said.

Smoker grunted, but tried to wake himself up some more.

Izou, who was already fully dressed again, made his way out of the tent. "I'll wait outside."

It took Smoker a few minutes to get ready and to take down the tent. He placed the folded canvas over the back of his horse and bound her to another tree, so she would have some fresh grass to eat for the day. He looked at Izou. "Can you fight? Or do you want to stay here with Hunter?"

"Hunter?" Izou asked.

Smoker petted the mare's nose. "Yeah, that's her name; White Hunter."

Izou snorted. "Doesn't sound very elegant." He smiled. "But I would like to go with you. I can fight." He preferred not to, but he wouldn't forgive himself if something happened to Smoker, and he wasn't there to prevent it.

"Do you have a weapon?" Smoker asked him.

"I don't need a weapon." Izou could fight with his hands perfectly fine.

Smoker raised an eyebrow and then grabbed a dagger from his boots. "Here, use this."

Izou wanted to protest, but decided to accept it anyway, just for Smoker's peace of mind. He tucked it away in the sash around his waist.

As they made their way through the forest, he let Smoker lead. It took about half an hour before they noticed the first person standing on guard. Izou placed his hand on Smoker's shoulder and brought his finger to his lips as a sign to not make not a sound. "Let me," he whispered as quietly as he could. He knew that he could be more quiet than a human ever could be, so sneaking up on the guard would be easy.

Smoker nodded, and Izou went on his way. As expected, he could get close to the guard without him even noticing a thing. Only at the last second he saw Izou, but then the god had already put a hand in front of his mouth, so he couldn't call for help. Izou grabbed the dagger and pretended to stab the guard. What he actually did was placing his hand on the guard's back, and letting so much love flow into his body that he eventually collapsed. It was a temporary thing. He would be better in a week or so.

When Izou walked back to his companion, Smoker looked impressed at him. "I didn't know you had it in you."

"Yes, you seem to have quite low expectations of me," Izou noticed.

Smoker shook his head. "If I didn't think you were capable of eliminating the guard, I wouldn't have let you go. I just didn't expect it to go so easily." He shrugged. "Besides, not many people are so beautiful, elegant, and deadly at the same time."

Izou didn't miss the slight blush on Smoker's cheeks as he said that, and he smiled. "Oh, he's not dead. Just unconscious." He didn't know if he was actually capable of killing someone. Love didn't usually kill.

"That's good enough for now," Smoker said while he continued walking. "As long as Blackbeard himself ends up dead, I'm satisfied."

Izou didn't say anything, and they followed their path in silence. On their way, they came across two more guards who they both got rid of with as little sound as possible so they wouldn't alert any other people. In less than an hour since they left White Hunter behind, they got a clear view of Blackbeard's hideout.

"So, how do we find out where Blackbeard is?" Izou whispered.

Smoker studied the small settlement, hidden in the shadows of the large trees around it. "That's something I might not have thought through all too well." He turned to look at Izo, but then his eyes widened.

A second later, Smoker had drawn his sword and planted it into the ribcage of a rather large woman, who had sneaked up on Izou. The god was pressed against a tree in the process of Smoker coming closer to stab the woman, and he was slightly startled.

It was not like Izou could be killed by human hand – or weapon for that matter – but the fact that he hadn't noticed her coming closer worried him a bit.

Smoker pulled back his sword when he was sure she wouldn't get up again, and looked Izou into his eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Izou answered softly, noticing how close Smoker's body was to his.

"Good," Smoker kept looking into his eyes.

Izou also noticed how Smoker didn't move back an inch. Izou's hart started to beat faster, and his breathing became heavier as he realized how easy their position would make it to kiss. He would just have to lean in a little bit and their lips would touch. In fact, he could already feel smoker's breathing on his lips. It was so tempting, but he wasn't sure if that was what Smoker wanted too. Still, Smoker kept eye contact and hadn't moved back yet. And did his eyes flicker to Izou's lips, just for a second? Izou couldn't take the tension anymore, and slowly started to lean in.

That was when Smoker suddenly pulled back. He coughed, slightly embarrassed. "So, about Blackbeard…" He looked back at the settlement and seemed to avoid Izou's gaze. "He's their boss, and leaders can usually be found in the biggest building, right? Especially with a small settlement like this."

Izou needed a moment to get over his disappointment, but then focused on the hideout again. "That's true. So your plan is to just get into the big building in the middle and look for him there?" He wasn't too sure about that plan and was happy he hadn't let Smoker go into this on his own.

Smoker shrugged, and almost looked at Izou again, just slightly avoiding his eyes. "Unless you've got a better idea."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued!  
> (I would love to read your opinions on this chapter or the story so far!)


	5. Chapter 5

Smoker knew this plan was hardly solid enough to be called a plan, but it was the only option he had. Now, they still had the element of surprise. If the Blackbeards learned that Smoker was still alive, they would be more prepared for him. So they had to act fast, or they would lose their chance to kill Blackbeard.

Smoker and Izou sneaked towards the first building. There was a total of six; one in the middle, and five surrounding it. Beside the darkness of the trees, the settlement was also hidden from immediate view because of the camouflage. All the walls and roofs of the buildings were covered with branches and moss. It was a good thing Smoker had known where to look, or they would have been searching for a long time.

Smoker had chosen for sneaking into the settlement as far as possible, instead of just running in as fast as possible. The less guards they attracted, the higher their chances got at actually reaching Blackbeard. And Smoker had a feeling everyone living here was a warrior, or Blackbeard would have never been able to show up on the battlefield with enough people to call an army. Or he had another hideout somewhere else. Smoker hoped that wasn't the case. If they didn't find Blackbeard here, it would be hard to get to him.

They made it to the first building without problems. However, when Smoker carefully looked around the corner of the house towards the building in the middle, he saw two people walking around. Fortunately, it was still early, or it would probably be a little more crowded. As he thought of what the best way was to handle those people – fight them or try to sneak past them – the two men suddenly fell onto their knees, clenching their chest, and then collapsed.

"What the –" He looked around to see if Izou had any idea what happened.

Izou just got up from crouching position, and Smoker frowned. "What did you…?"

"I tripped," Izou whispered. "Let's not dwell on what happened to those two, and just make use of the fact that they aren't a thread anymore, shall we?"

Smoker's frown deepened. If there was someone else who got to those people, it seemed important to him to pay attention to that. But apparently Izou didn't think the same. There was something fishy about this whole thing.

However, before he could stop Izou, the man was already hurrying towards the stairs that led up to the slightly higher, middle building. Smoker could only follow him.

When he caught up with Izou, the latter had pressed his ear against the door. "I don't hear anything."

"Well, let's go in then," Smoker said as quietly as he could.

Izou didn't waste any time and opened the door. Unfortunately, there was someone standing near the door, and the guard immediately took on a fighting pose when he saw their faces. One problem for him; by that time Izou had already planted his fist into the man's stomach. Apparently, that was one hell of a fist, because the guard doubled, fell over, and lay motionless on the floor.

Smoker didn't think much about it, and hurried towards what seemed the main room of the building. However, the noise of them entering the house had attracted the attention of people in the other rooms, who came to see what the commotion was about. They came at him with raised weapons, but Smoker was prepared for them. He slashed a woman, coming from his right, while he hit the man on his left with his fist. The woman was bleeding heavily and stayed down, but the man came at him again. He managed to make a cut in Smoker's arm, but Smoker barely felt it. He saw red. He was focused on getting to Blackbeard, getting his revenge. That was all that mattered. He didn't care that he slit the throat of the men who'd attacked him. He didn't care if the people who tried to stop him ended up dead or wounded, as long as they weren't able to stop him from doing the thing that he had to do.

Never before had he felt so much hatred in his life. Blackbeard was going to pay for this. He had taken Hina and Tashigi from him, and there was no way Smoker could ever forgive anyone for doing that.

Smoker lost count of how many people he fought. He got a few cuts and bruises, but nothing that would stop him from his goal. He kicked in the door of the main room and saw Blackbeard sitting on a couch, surrounded by a few of what Smoker presumed to be his strongest men and women. The bastard laughed like a demon from the deepest of hells, but in his eyes, Smoker spotted a hint of fear.

"Smoker!" Blackbeard said as if he was pleasantly surprised to see him. "I see you survived our little campfire!"

Smoker ground his teeth. "Too bad for you, I wasn't there at the time."

Blackbeard laughed again, this time even harder. "Good for you! How's your family?"

Full of rage, Smoker attacked. He went straight for Blackbeard's head, but of course, the man's guard dogs wouldn't let him. Two of them attacked Smoker straight on, while a few others spread through the room, surrounding him.

Smoker beat up the two men attacking him with ease. He was so close to his goal now, he wouldn't let himself be killed in here. As another guard attacked him, they were all surprised by a loud outcry of a large, strong looking woman who was protecting Blackbeard just a second ago.

"Oh, Burgess! I love you so much!" She spread her arms as she walked towards the guard standing closest to Blackbeard. "Come here, you sweet, big teddy bear!"

The man backed away, but soon hit a wall, and couldn't escape the woman's tight hug. "Catarina, what the hell are you –"

"Kiss me, you sugar sweet –"

Smoker made use of the confusion and hit his opponent so hard on his chin that his head snapped back, and after a cracking sound, he fell to the ground. Beside him, Smoker saw Izou kicking a man hard in his crotch. Seeing as the crazy woman kept her man busy, that left them only two guards and Blackbeard.

Smoker let out a cry of pain when suddenly, a dagger sunk into his shoulder. One of the guards, sitting beside Blackbeard had thrown it at him, and made himself ready to throw another dagger his way. However, Izou was faster, and grabbed the man by his throat. He pressed him against the wall, and kept him in that position until his breath had run out and his body went limp, all while mumbling something Smoker couldn't make out.

Smoker pulled the dagger from his shoulder, trying to ignore the pain and the bleeding. He pretended not to notice the last guard who came at him, but when he was close enough, Smoker stabbed him with the dagger he had just retrieved from his shoulder. He left the dagger in the man's stomach and kicked him aside.

Smoker focused his gaze on Blackbeard and walked towards him with drawn sword. "Did you really think you could get away with this?"

"Burgess, Caterina, snap out of it!" Blackbeard yelled at his underlings, panic now showing on his face.

But Smoker saw that Izou was keeping a close eye on the guy who was still pressed against the wall by the woman named Caterina, so Smoker didn't worry about them. He continued his way towards Blackbeard.

However, Blackbeard didn't just sit and wait for Smoker to get him, but jumped up, pulled a dagger from his belt, and threw it at him. Apparently, his aim was a lot worse than that of his guard, because he missed by at least two feet. He threw another one, but missed again, although this time it came closer.

Within a few seconds, Smoker had driven him against the wall. Blackbeard had one dagger left, but kept it in his hand as a form of defense. Before he could come even close to stabbing Smoker with it, however, Smoker had already swung his sword towards him. With one swift movement, the hand holding the dagger fell from its arm to the ground.

"That's for my wife," Smoker said as he ignored Blackbeard's painful lamentations. "And this," he held the sword in front of him, "is for my daughter." He drove his sword as far into Blackbeard's chest as possible. Or rather, _Tashigi's_ sword. He liked the symbolism, Smoker decided as he saw Blackbeard gasping for air through his punctured lunges and coughing up blood. It was like he was being killed by Tashigi herself.

"Boss!" Burgess exclaimed as he finally freed himself from the woman harassing him. Izou tried to stop him, but only got to touch his arm before he was pushed aside. Smoker pulled the sword out of Blackbeard's dying body and made himself ready to fight again, but the guard only sat down next to his boss, trying to find a way to save him.

"We should go. There's no way he'll survive that," Izou said, and carefully touched Smoker's shoulder to push him towards the exit.

Smoker nodded, and they quickly left the building. Outside were a few more people now, who looked at them in shock. Immediately, a few of them started to chase them, but others stayed behind to see what had happened in the main building. Smoker and Izou ran into the woods, trying to lose their pursuers.

When Smoker heard a scream, he looked around, and saw that Izou was just knocking the last guard on their trail unconscious. He was once again impressed by how Izou could fight multiple people at the same time, and mostly with his bare hands too.

Even though they didn't see any more people coming after them, they still ran the last end towards where Smoker left his horse. It wouldn't take long before they would all find out that their leader was dead, and they would certainly come after them. By then, Smoker and Izou had to be far enough that they couldn't be found so easily.

"Hey Whitey, you alright?" Izou said as he walked towards the horse to petted her on the nose.

Smoker frowned. "Whitey?"

Izou smirked at him. "Hey, if her name is White Hunter, and you can call her Hunter, then I can call her Whitey."

Smoker couldn't help but chuckle. Izou certainly didn't care that she was, in fact, Smoker's horse.

"So, how do you feel?" Izou asked while he released the mare from the tree she was bound to. "Are you happy, now that he's dead?"

Smoker shrugged. Some of the anger had lifted, but most was still there. He was, however, glad at least Blackbeard was dead. But Smoker wasn't done yet. The biggest challenge had yet to come. "I guess. I'm happy he's dead, but that doesn't make me happy in general."

Izou gave him an sympathetic smile. "That's understandable. It doesn't bring your wife and daughter back, or the rest of the village." He climbed onto White Hunter. "But at least you can now start your process of grieving."

"Not yet," Smoker said. "There is still someone else I have to go see."

Izou looked questioning at him. "Someone else?"

"Yes." Smoker mounted his horse as well. "We'll ride to the north."

* * *

That night, they had settled somewhere northwards from the Blackbeard forest, far enough away that they wouldn't find them, were any of Blackbeard's followers to try and come after them.

The landscape slowly changed into hills, and they had been able to set up their tent in the shadow of a rock and near some trees, so they weren't in plain view from the main path. Izou lay on his side, looking at Smoker's back. Smoker still hadn't told him where exactly they were going. 'To the north,' he'd said. Well, that could be practically anywhere. There were mountains in the north, and even some active volcanoes. Sure, a lot of people lived there, making use of the fertile earth there, but Izou couldn't think of anyone Smoker would want to meet.

And why did he want to meet anyone else, anyway? He had killed Blackbeard, the one responsible for the fire and the death of his village. Wasn't that enough? What would he possibly want more, before he could grief like a normal person?

Smoker turned around and looked straight into Izou's eyes, before the latter could close them or look away. "You're not sleeping."

Izou smiled at him. He couldn't help it, Smoker just made him smile. "Neither are you."

"Yeah, I was just thinking about what happened today." Smoker lifted himself on his elbow, and let his head rest on his hand, so he could get a slightly better look at Izou. It was his right arm, he used as support, because his left arm, its shoulder now wrapped in bandages, wouldn't be able to hold that pose. After a pause, Smoker asked, "Why are you here with me?"

Izou felt his face heat up. He didn't see that question coming. "I, eh… You wanted my company," he answered.

"Yeah, but could you just leave your normal life behind for a few days?" Smoker seemed to lean in the tiniest bit, but that might also have been Izou's hopeful imagination. "I mean, what is it you usually do? You told me you didn't have a wife, but don't you have parents or more family either?"

"Of course I have family… I have my father, and my brothers, but they can live without me for a few days," Izou explained in all honesty.

"But what do you normally do? Are you a priest, or a baker, or a warrior?" Smoker asked. "You can't be a warrior, or at least you don't have any scars to prove it. Now that I think about it, how come you haven't gotten any wounds or bruises in our fight earlier today?"

Izou became a little nervous. Was Smoker on to him? Did he find out who he really was? Izou didn't want that. He didn't want Smoker to start treating him like a god, instead of a fellow human being. So Izou told the truth in a slightly different way. "I'm just good at avoiding people's blades and fists. I don't want my skin to get damaged. And as to what I normally do… I usually just travel a lot too, going from town to town to help people."

"You're a doctor?" Smoker seemed to buy it.

"Something like that, yes." _Specialized in heart sickness_ , Izou thought to himself.

Smoker moved a little closer – now Izou was sure of it. "Well, thank you. Thank you for going with me." He reached out and slowly brought his hand towards Izou's hair. "I really enjoy your company."

Izou's heart started to beat faster and louder, and he was becoming afraid Smoker might hear it. Still, he smiled. "The pleasure is all mine."

It was silent for a moment, while Smoker softly played with Izou's long, black strands. Then the corner of Smoker's mouth curled up just the slightest. "You let me touch your hair."

"Yes," Izou said. He couldn't think very straight anymore. He felt like he should be saying something intelligent, but he only could think about how loud his heart was beating and how much he longed to feel Smoker's lips on his own.

"It's soft," Smoker noticed. His voice sounded deep and husky.

Izou leaned in a bit. Could he– Should he– Would it be wrong if he kissed Smoker right now? For crying out loud, he was the god of love, he should _know_ when it was the right or wrong time to kiss somebody. But now felt like the right time… Should he just–

Suddenly, Smoker crossed the distance between them and kissed him softly on his lips. First it was hesitantly, as if he was trying to get approval, but when Izou kissed back – his heart almost jumping out of his chest – it became more confident.

The touch of Smoker's lips was a feeling that surpassed even his most intense imaginations. The soft pressure, the light sucking, the taste of cigars that lingered on his lips, Izou almost couldn't believe it was really happening. As the kiss continued, it became even more intense and more passionate. Izou put his hand behind Smoker's head to get a better hold on him and let his tongue run over Smoker's lips experimentally. He noticed Smoker parted those lips slightly, giving Izou permission to explore further. The kiss deepened as their tongues met each other.

After a while, in which Izou had completely lost all sense of time, they parted for breath. Izou softly bit on Smoker's lower lip, before he let go of him completely, and pulled his head back a little.

"Good god," Smoker said, breathing heavily. "You're an amazing kisser."

Izou chuckled because of his choice of words, meanwhile trying to get the butterflies in his stomach under control. "You are not that bad yourself." When he had his breath back, however, he averted his eyes to the ground. "But wasn't this a little… too soon?"

"Yeah," Smoker answered. But it was not the answer Izou had wanted to hear. Fortunately, Smoker continued, "I mean, my head tells me it's way too soon. But… I can't help what I feel for you."

Izou couldn't help but smile at that. "I'm afraid I can't help that either." Well, that wasn't entirely true. He could at least lessen the love Smoker felt, a little. But Izou wasn't sure he should already do that. Besides, the extra dose of love Smoker had gotten was meant to take on the dark poison in the hearts of the people of Shells Town. And since there was no such darkness in Smoker's heart, it would probably fade in time. Maybe he didn't even have to take it away at all.

Smoker kissed Izou again, shorter this time, but still lovingly. "I'm glad you're here," he said as he lay down on his back.

Izou laid his head down on Smoker's chest and made himself comfortable there. "Yeah, me too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued~!  
> Please leave a comment, I'm really curious if you can guess what Smoker is planning to do next.  
> Next chapter will be the last, but will also be longer!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! But twice the size! :)  
> I hope you all enjoyed this story and will leave a small comment to tell me what you thought ^^

They rode farther northwards, Izou holding Smoker a little tighter than before, experiencing the physical contact as less awkward after last night. Slowly, the hills became higher and higher, and changed into small mountains.

"So… are you going to tell me what your plan is, anytime soon?" Izou asked, when they were having a break to give White Hunter some rest and get themselves something to eat in a small village. Somehow, it didn't sit well with Izou that he didn't know where they were going and what they were going to do. It wasn't that he didn't trust Smoker, but…. Well, maybe it _was_. He didn't fully trust Smoker to make the right decisions right now. Izou never fully supported his decision to kill Blackbeard, and if Smoker needed to do something else before he could start grieving…. Izou felt like it was not a good thing.

"I'm not sure I should tell you," Smoker answered.

Izou raised his eyebrows. "And why is that?"

Smoker stared into the distance, while smoking his two cigars – why one wasn't enough to destroy his lunges, was beyond Izou. "It… might sound a little stupid to you."

"I'm used to a lot of stupid." He should know how Izou's brothers were, or he wouldn't really know what stupid was. "So don't worry about that. Just tell me."

Smoker sighed. "Blackbeard wasn't the only one responsible for the destruction of my village."

Izou thought about it. The Blackbeards were the ones who lit the fire, so who else could Smoker possibly mean?

"I need to kill both people responsible for this, if it where only to make sure they could never do this to me again." Smoker looked determined. "I have to kill Ace as well."

Izou blinked. Had he heard that correctly? Then he snorted. "Ace?"

Smoker scowled at him. "Yes, Ace. You should have seen how desperately those flames tried to get higher, as if they wanted to be in the sky so badly that they would do everything to get there." Smoker said angrily. "If Ace has a thing for Marco, they should just get together or get over it. Don't destroy the world because of it."

Izou burst out laughing. So even the mortals had noticed. "Don't let Ace hear that," he mumbled. But when he saw Smoker's serious look, he stopped laughing. "I'm sorry, it's not funny."

"I don't know what I've done to get on Ace's bad side, or if he just didn't care, but he can't have had a good reason to do this to my village. So I can't just forgive him like that." Smoker crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Izou sighed. "Smoker, honey, Ace is a god. You can't kill gods."

"I know that." Smoker stood up from the grass he had been sitting on. "Normally, that's impossible. But that's why we travel to the north. To find someone who can help us."

"And where in the north would that be?" Izou asked, even though he was pretty sure there wasn't anyone who could kill them. What good would it do if humans could kill gods? They couldn't always give people what they wanted, so there were times when humans were angry with them or disappointed in them. If they could just kill the god they were displeased with, there would be no god left by now.

"On Red Dog Mountain," Smoker explained. "There lives a man named Sakazuki. I believe he can help us."

* * *

Smoker had asked around in the village if people knew how to get to the volcano, named Red Dog Mountain. He had only heard stories about it and about the man Sakazuki, who was the great hero that had slain a dragon – or so the stories were told. He didn't even know for sure if they were true, but it was his only hope.

Some people in the village had claimed it was only a fairy tale, but other said this wasn't true, and said they had to travel farther north, for a while. So they did. He hadn't told Izou he had doubts about the validity of this story, since Izou already tried to convince him that he had his hopes up for nothing.

At the end of the day, they were one village farther up north, and decided to stay at the inn there. He tried to ask the innkeeper discretely about what he knew, but Izou had already heard him. He didn't react on it immediately though, so Smoker had a bit of hope left that he could pretend to know everything.

However, as soon as they were inside their room, Izou pushed Smoker onto the bed and straddled him. Smoker was a little surprised by this, but not unpleasantly so. He didn't expect Izou to cross his arms in front of his chest and look down on him, though.

"You don't even completely believe in this story yourself?" Izou said. "Honestly, I understand where you're coming from, but are you really going to travel all the way to a volcano you aren't even sure exists? I can think of a lot of better things to do with your time."

"Even if there's only one percent chance that the story is real, I have to try it." Smoker couldn't keep his eyes off of Izou. _Damn, he was gorgeous!_ And in this position Smoker could get a good view of him.

Izou sighed. "Why are you so set on getting revenge?"

"We've talked about this." Smoker sat up, and wrapped his arms around Izou. "Let's do more interesting things." He started kissing Izou's neck.

"But it's just pointless. You'll never kill… Ace… ohh." Izou let out a deep, pleasured sigh, and Smoker smirked victoriously. But Izou didn't gave up so easily, it seemed. "Stop… distracting…me. I'm trying… oh… to be… seriou– No, don't stop!"

Smoker chuckled and placed a kiss on Izou's collar bone. "You should make up your mind. Want me to stop or not?"

Izou pushed Smoker's head back a bit, so he could kiss him on his lips. "Please continue." He sounded almost desperately. "We can talk again tomorrow."

* * *

The next morning, however, Izou was in too good a mood to start a discussion again, and so let it go for now. If Smoker really wanted to chase this impossible goal, he would let him, and Izou would be there for him when he finally had to give up. He just hoped they would quickly find prove of the nonexistence of this mountain and the man living on it.

However, as they traveled farther northwards over the next days, the rumors of the story being true got louder and louder. Izou did some inquiring on his own, when Smoker wasn't paying attention, just in case he found some information that could really help Smoker getting closer to his goal. Because that was something Izou slowly began to fear in the last few days. What if the story was true, and there _was_ a way to kill Ace? He couldn't just let Smoker kill his brother. He also couldn't let him try and get killed by Ace. Even if that was the only thing possible for Ace to do, Izou wasn't sure if he could forgive his brother if he killed his lover.

While getting some bread, the baker in one of the villages they crossed told Izou the story _he_ knew. "Yeah, Red Dog Mountain isn't too far away from here anymore. About two days," the baker said. "Sakazuki lives there, near the crater. He's kind of a loner, but is famous for his protection of the nearby village. It's said he forges weapons in the magma of the volcano. Weapons that can kill anything. He even once killed a dragon with a spear he made inside that volcano."

"A dragon? Are you sure?" Izou asked the man, pulling the hooded cloak he wore a little further over his head.

"Yeah, it was about ten yards long, they said." The baker handed him his bread.

"Do you think…" Izou lowered his voice a bit. "Do you think his weapons could kill a god?"

The man's eyes widened. "Why, in heaven's name, would you want to kill a god?!" He also tried to speak as quietly as possible, probably afraid one of those gods would hear him. Well, wasn't that just his luck.

"I don't," Izou assured him. "It was meant hypothetically."

He could hear the man swallow. "I-I don't want to have anything to do with this."

Izou sighed. "Alright, don't worry, I'll leave." He gave the baker his money and left.

He met Smoker at the edge of the village, where he was waiting beside his horse.

"Did you find out anything new?" Izou asked him. He didn't want to tell Smoker about how firmly the baker had told the story and how he seemed to believe it was true.

"Yeah, some guy gave me directions to the volcano," Smoker answered. "We have to follow the river until Cocoyashi Village, and then cross the nearest two mountains in the north-east. From there we would have a clear view of Red Dog Mountain."

Well, that was horribly specific. Izou nodded, because what else could he do? "Okay. But just because that volcano seems to exist, doesn't mean you'll find what you're looking for," Izou said. "I mean, don't get your hopes up too much."

"You almost sound like you hope I won't succeed," Smoker commented.

Izou gave him a small kiss on his lips. "In a way, I do. Because you'll only get yourself killed, if you'd really go up against Ace." He took a step back. "Besides, I just don't want you to be too disappointed when this Sakazuki guy can't help you, or doesn't even exist."

Smoker didn't look too pleased. "I'm a big boy, Izou, I can handle some disappointment. And I won't die. If there is a possibility to kill Ace, I will use it, and I will win."

Izou shook his head. "His brothers won't let you."

Smoker looked at him in silence for a while, and Izou was unable to tell what he was thinking. Then shrugged. "I'll have to get him alone then."

"And how will you even get to him? You can't go up to heaven!" Izou started to get a little frustrated. Why couldn't Smoker just let this stupid plan go?

"I will think of something. Maybe Sakazuki can help me with it," Smoker answered. "I've heard he doesn't really like the gods."

Izou pinched the bridge of his nose. "Smoker, please. This plan is ridiculous."

"Well, you're free to leave me," Smoker said as he started to ready White Hunter for the next part of his journey.

Izou felt a pressure on his chest, like someone was trying to crush his heart. "You want me to leave?"

Smoker sighed. "No, Izou, I don't want you to leave. I'm just saying you _can_ , if you want. Since you seem so opposed to my plan." He didn't look at Izou. "But I would hate it if you actually left me," he mumbled.

But Izou had heard him, and let out a relieved breath. The pressure on his chest immediately vanished. "That's not a reason for me to leave you." On the contrary, he'd rather be there to do something about it, if it really came so far that he'd try to kill Ace.

Smoker nodded. "Alright. Shall we go then?"

* * *

They reached Cocoyashi Village at the end of that day and decided to set up their tent just outside the village. The sun was almost down, when Izou told Smoker he needed to take a little walk, to think things over. Smoker nodded and let him go.

However, as soon as Izou had found a quiet spot where no one could see him, he ascended to heaven. He just had to check some things with his father.

"Oh, Izou!" Fossa greeted him as soon as he stepped onto the clouds. "Long time no see."

"Yeah, yeah," Izou waved shortly at him, but was not in the mood to have a chat with him, so he quickly walked towards the place where Whitebeard was usually sitting on his throne.

As he got Izou into view, Whitebeard smiled. "So the lost son returns," he said happily. "I heard you found happiness with some human."

"Yeah, I had. _Have._ " Izou answered as he crossed the last bit of distance towards his father.

"What's the matter, son? You look troubled."

Izou sighed and sat down in front of Whitebeard. "Pops, I need your help." When he noticed his father was listening to him, he continued. "There is this story going around, and I need to know if it's true. Is there a man named Sakazuki, living on a volcano named Red Dog Mountain?"

Whitebeard scoffed. "That magma brat… Yeah, he's real. He's never done anything good for us, though."

"I heard… he defeated a dragon?" Izou asked, a little afraid to sound stupid for believing something that might be an obvious lie.

"Yeah, I put the dragon there to guard something for me, but that magma brat killed him," Whitebeard explained.

So it was true. Izou wasn't too happy about that. But he needed to know one more thing. "How did he do it?"

"He forged a weapon in the crater of Red Dog Mountain. The weapon could pierce scales and could fight fire, as the inside of the volcano is much hotter than fire." Whitebeard crossed his arms in front of his chest. "As punishment, I made sure he would never be able to leave that mountain of his again. Remarkably enough, he's survived all these years. He must have made some deal with the people of the nearby village to keep bringing him food."

Izou sighed. So his weapons were specifically made to fight fire. That was just great. "Alright, thanks Pops."

"No problem, kid, but why did you ask?" Whitebeard asked his son.

Izou stood up. "I just needed to know if it was true, nothing special, you don't need to worry." He would fix this himself. No need to get his family involved.

"Alright, well, you'd better go back to your human then." Whitebeard winked at him, and Izou couldn't help but chuckle. "Oh, but Izou, I'd stay away from that Sakazuki and his mountain, if I were you. I'm not sure how powerful his weapons really are."

With this comment that didn't reassure Izou _at all_ , he left Whitebeard's place. He chose not to go back to earth immediately, because he just wanted to check up on Ace for a bit, to see how he was doing. Who knew, maybe he and Marco had gotten together in the time Izou had been away.

Of course, when he found Ace, he immediately noticed this was not the case. They would really need Izou's help, some day. But Ace seemed to do fine, so that made Izou glad. He kept looking at his brother from a distance, not feeling like talking to Ace at the moment.

"I know what he's planning to do," Thatch's voice suddenly sounded very close to his ear.

Izou turned around. "Who?"

"Your boyfriend." Thatch looked more serious than Izou had ever seen him before. "You really gotta do something about it."

"I know," Izou said quietly, he didn't want anyone else to hear them. "I will." Then he realized something. "Wait, have you been spying on me?"

"A few times, yes," Thatch admitted. "I have to keep an eye on my little brother! But I haven't been watching you _all_ the time…"

"Good," Izou said relieved. At least his brother hadn't seen _everything._ "That's good."

"Why, are you hiding something from m–" Thatch closed his eyes in regret. "Oh for heaven's sake, I did _not_ want to picture _that_." He carefully opened his eyes again. "You didn't– Did you…? Never mind, I don't wanna know."

Izou smirked. "Hell yeah, we did. And it was _amazing_."

Thatch hold up his hands, as if he tried to stop Izou's words from reaching him. "I do _not_ want to hear any details."

"Details?" Izou couldn't help but grin mischievously. "Like who was on top? Or how he got on his knees and–"

"I don't want to hear it!" Thatch had placed his hands over his ears. "I can't hear you! Can't hear you! Nananana!"

Izou burst out laughing. "You're such a child."

It took a while before Thatch dared to take his hands off his ears again, but when he did, Izou continued in all seriousness. "But Thatch, did you tell anyone else about Smoker's plans?"

Thatch sighed. "No, I wanted to give you the opportunity to fix it yourself."

"Thank you. Let's keep this between us then, shall we?" Izou asked. "I won't let anything happen to Ace."

Thatch nodded. "You'd better."

"Alright, I'll be on my way then." Izou turned away from Thatch, making himself ready to descent. Still, he couldn't help but smirk. "Oh yeah, and Thatch… you might not want to be spying on us tonight, if you know what I mean."

"Aw, geez! Shut up and get lost!" Thatch's yelling was the last thing Izou heard before he set foot on earth again.

* * *

Izou had used half the night thinking about what to do next. In the end, there only seemed to be one good option. He had to talk Smoker out of it. If he couldn't… Izou didn't want to think about that. He just had to. There was no other option if everybody wanted to get out of this alive.

So the next morning, when Smoker was readying White Hunter for the last part of their journey, Izou sat down on a small rock. "Smokey, could you come sit with me for a bit? I need to talk to you."

Smoker raised an eyebrow, but stopped what he was doing nonetheless, and sat down next to Izou. "What is it?"

Izou took a deep breath. How to explain this… "Well, the rumors seem to be true. There really seems to be a Sakazuki, living on a Red Dog Mountain, who killed some dragon. I had hoped it wouldn't have to come to this, but I have to stop you here." He looked at Smoker. "I can't let you kill Ace."

Smoker stared at him in silence for a few moments, and Izou was unable to read his face. Then Smoker turned his gaze away from him and sighed. "I know."

Izou shook his head. "No, you don't. You don't understand. I–"

"I do, Izou." Smoker looked at him again, straight into his eyes. "I understand it perfectly well. You already said it yesterday; his brothers won't let me."

Izou could only stare at him, thoroughly confused. Did Smoker know? Did he know who Izou really was? But he hadn't treated him any differently. Hell, would any human do with a god what they did last night, if they knew they were doing it with a god? No, that couldn't be. Smoker probably meant to say something else. "Wha–"

"I've suspected it for quite some time, actually, but a few days ago, got pretty convinced of it," Smoker explained. "That was when I saw you had Whitebeard's mark on your upper arm. But you're not a priest. So I figured you weren't named after the god, because you _were_ him."

Izou didn't know what to say for a moment. Then he chuckled a bit embarrassedly. "Busted, I guess." He scratched the back of his head. "It's just… normally people treat me differently when they find out who I'm really am. Like they're scared of me or scared to offend me, or anything. They don't usually dare to come close to me, let alone have sex with me."

Smoker blushed slightly. "I don't really care about what other people do. Besides, I didn't know _for sure_ , until now."

Izou looked at him and smirked. "Do you even realize you've been having sex with a god? You're in a relationship with a god?" It felt actually pretty good to say it out loud. To not have to lie to Smoker anymore.

Smoker snorted. "I realize." He chuckled uncomfortably. "It feels kinda unreal."

"I hope you won't change your attitude towards me, though," Izou said.

"Yeah, no problem. You will still be sitting behind me on Hunter." Smoker smirked. "Awkward boner or not."

Izou laughed. So he _had_ noticed. "Wow, that's a first time any human spoke to me like that while knowing who I am."

Smoker's face turned serious again. "One thing, Izou. Please answer me honestly. Is my love for you real? I know you could easily make me fall in love with you."

"But would that make it less real?" Izou asked him. Smoker's face, however, told him he was waiting for an honest answer. "It's real, alright. I didn't make you fall in love. I just… I was in Shells Town to fix the problem there, and I gave every adult some extra feelings of love to heal their poisoned hearts. Your heart wasn't poisoned, but you were still an adult in Shells Town at the time, so your feelings might have increased a bit. That doesn't make you fall in love with people you normally wouldn't, but… in this case, it might have sped up the process a bit."

Smoker thought about that for a while, but then stood up. "Alright. Shall we go now?"

"What? No!" Izou stopped him. "You still want to go?"

"Of course," Smoker answered. "Nothing of this changed the fact that because of Ace, my village and my family are gone."

"You realize you're talking about my brother here, right?" Izou was stunned that Smoker still wanted to continue this. "You're talking about killing my _brother._ "

Smoker sighed. "I'm really sorry, Izou, but your _brother_ killed my family."

"No, Blackbeard killed your family. And you killed Blackbeard, so now you're even." Izou was becoming a little angry. How could Smoker love him, but still want to kill his brother?

"And how would he have done that without Ace's help?" Smoker asked.

"You know how forests burn down sometimes?" Izou asked. "You think that's because the trees or the animals did something to anger Ace? Or that someone prays for Ace to burn down the forest? No." Izou thought for a moment, not sure if he should tell Smoker. But hell, he had already started, he could just as well finish it. "Mortals aren't supposed to know this, but Ace has narcolepsy. He falls asleep sometimes, at random moments. That night when your village burned down, we were having a party. Just before dawn, Ace fell asleep. I was there, I saw it. And when he sleeps, he loses control over fire on earth."

Smoker just looked at Izou, while he told this, and once again, the god had trouble reading his face.

"He couldn't help it," Izou tried to make his point.

"He should have been there to protect us," Smoker simply stated, before he walked towards his horse. "He could have not lost control of the fire."

Izou followed him. "Are you even listening to me? I said he couldn't help it!"

Smoker turned around. "Izou, you don't understand. This is the only thing holding me together at the moment. My wife and my _daughter_ died. I cannot come to terms with that if I did not kill everyone responsible. Or else, who knows you're not the next one to burn?"

"I won't die that easily. I'm a god, remember?" Izou stood beside the horse, while Smoker climbed onto it. He understood Smoker's feelings towards someone who was partly responsible for his family's death, but he didn't understand how he could feel that way towards Izou's brother. He sighed. "Please think about it?"

Smoker shrugged. "Fine. I'll give it some more thought. But don't get your hopes up."

"Alright, thank you." Izou mounted the horse as well. "In that case, I'll come with you."

While they rode up the nearest mountain, Izou thought desperately for a way to convince Smoker. But he began to fear it was an impossible task, so he slowly started to think of what other options he had. He could kill Sakazuki. But he man probably already had some weapons laying around, so that wouldn't stop the threat. Aside from that, he also took the chance of getting killed himself, as he didn't know how powerful those weapons were. But he wouldn't mind sacrificing himself, if that meant he could erase the threat completely. However, it didn't, so that wasn't an option. He couldn't get himself killed if Ace would still be killed afterwards. He had to come up with a better plan.

But there wasn't a better plan. There was _another_ plan, one that _would_ erase all threat, but it wasn't a good plan. He hated that plan and he would only use it if every other possibility was ruled out. The point was, Sakazuki and his weapons weren't a threat on their own. Sakazuki couldn't leave the mountain, after all. So the weapons would only be a threat in the hands of someone who was seriously planning to kill a god with them. Normally, no one would be crazy enough to try that. But Smoker…

He really hoped Smoker would come to his senses.

When they reached the top of the first mountain, they took a short break. Izou didn't eat, as he didn't feel like eating at all. "Did you change your mind yet?" He tried to ask as lightly as possible. He didn't want to come across as pushy, but he actually was. It was just not an option for Smoker not to change his mind.

"Nope," Smoker said, while he ate a piece of bread.

"You care for me, right?" Izou asked. "If you really care for me, you won't kill my brother. Because that would hurt me."

"I do care for you, Izou," Smoker answered. "But I cared for Hina and Tashigi too. Especially Tashigi, I cannot let her death go unavenged. If you care about _me_ , you wouldn't try to stop me."

"That's ridiculous! If I'm not stopping you, my brother might die! Or you!" Izou pulled his hair in frustration. "It's because I love you both that I want you to stop."

Smoker shrugged. "Then stop me. I mean, you're a god, I'm sure you can easily stop me with more than words."

"I don't want to forcefully stop you." Izou took Smoker's hand in his own. "I don't want to hurt you. I just want you to see how bad this plan is. I want you to choose for me, and not your revenge."

"I don't wanna choose," Smoker said, as he made himself ready to continue his journey again.

"Well, you'll have to," Izou stated firmly. "Either you continue to go towards that mountain and you'll lose me, or you'll stay with me and give up on your revenge." He didn't want to let Smoker choose between those two options, since he didn't want to lose Smoker, but Izou was desperate. Smoker had to be stopped. "It's either me, or your revenge. It's your choice."

Smoker looked hurt for a bit, but then turned his gaze towards a spot on the ground near Izou. "Be honest with me Izou, were you even planning to stay with me after this was over? You're a _god_. I'm just a puny human. You would've been bored by me in no time."

"You really think that?" Izou shook his head. "You really think I care about that? The only thing that bothers me about the fact that you're human, is that you'll die, when I won't. Yes, I was planning to stay with you until that moment. I've never felt so alive as when I'm with you. I've never felt so… human."

"Then why are you leaving me now?" Smoker asked as he mounted White Hunter.

"I'm not–" Izou stopped and looked at him. "You're choosing your revenge," he concluded. "That's your choice, not mine."

"I'm sorry, Izou," Smoker said. He turned his horse into the right direction to continue his way. "But you really need to come up with something better to stop me." He spurred his horse and rode down towards the next mountain.

Izou watched him go, a tear rolling down his cheek. "Do you think it's wise to anger a god?!" He yelled after him. He was angry and sad at the same time. Angry that Smoker was still going after Ace, and sad that he hadn't chosen to stay with Izou.

Another tear rolled down from his eyes. Fuck, this fucking hurt. Smoker had left him. Izou had never even thought that was a possibility when he fell in love with him. The only bad option was that Smoker wouldn't return his feelings, but when he did, Izou never thought they would break up again. Even if their relationship had lasted not much longer than a week. They had been together the entire time, and Izou had never felt so close to someone. How could Smoker just leave him like that?

Izou sat down and thought about the situation, all the while trying to fight his tears. His worst case scenario had just come true. He hadn't been able to convince Smoker. Which left only one option. An option that broke Izou's heart even more than Smoker leaving him.

Izou waited. An hour. Two hours. Three. Smoker didn't return. Izou had hoped he might change his mind after all, when he was alone, but this seemed not the case. By this time, he was probably already halfway up the next mountain.

Izou closed his eyes and focused. It didn't take long to find Smoker, indeed still heading towards the top of the next mountain, slightly faster than when Izou had been with him. Izou also heard someone else praying to him, a few hundred miles away, but that would have to wait. This needed his full attention.

Izou followed Smoker with his mind for a while, but nothing seemed to hint at a change of heart on Smoker's side. Eventually, Izou gave up. There was no chance anymore that Smoker would stop out of free will. Izou stood up, and within no time, he was walking beside Smoker and his horse again.

White Hunter seemed scared by his sudden appearance, but Smoker didn't even look up. "You're here again," he simply said, as he reassured his horse.

Izou didn't answer him, but walked the last few yards next to them, towards the top of the mountain. Once there, Smoker stopped his horse and got off of her. Both of them stared impressed at the smoking volcano in front of them.

"It seems dangerous," Izou commented. The volcano looked like it could erupt any time.

"I won't change my mind." Smoker looked at him. "Have you changed yours?"

Izou turned towards Smoker and went standing right in front of him, their faces very close. "I love you, Smoker."

Smoker saw this as a sign to kiss him, and Izou couldn't help but kiss back. But it hurt. Because he knew what he had to do next. He hadn't changed his mind.

Izou placed his hands in Smoker's neck, but broke the kiss right after that. "I'm so sorry," he said. Then he pressed his lips against Smoker's again. But this time he used the kiss to let more love flow into Smoker's body. He held his head in place, so Smoker couldn't get away.

Tears rolled down Izou's face while he heard Smoker's heartbeat speed up. It beat faster and faster, and Smoker started to protest, but Izou didn't let him go. He let more and more love flow into Smoker's body, more than he had used on Blackbeard's men. Letting him faint wouldn't solve the problem.

Smoker's heart beat faster with every second that past. Izou almost couldn't listen to it anymore, but he had to.

Then it stopped.

There was a deadly silence as Izou removed his lips from Smoker's. The man's body lay motionless in his hands. "I'm so, _so_ sorry, Smokey." He let out a choked sob and laid Smoker's body down on the ground.

After a few minutes of crying, the tears finally came to a stop, and Izou recovered himself as far as that was possible. He took a coin out of his pocket and placed it in Smoker's hand. He folded his fingers around it, and hold the hand, while saying the words needed for the transition to the other side. Izou closed his eyes, and traveled with him.

When he opened his eyes again, he stood in a dark, cave-like world. Next to him stood Smoker, looking slightly confused. Then Smoker opened his hand and looked at the coin. He slowly moved his gaze towards Izou. "Did you… kill me?"

Izou couldn't look him in his eyes. "I had no choice." He took Smoker's hand and led him to the river in front of them. It was such a broad river that they couldn't see the other side in this darkness.

Smoker pulled his hand from Izou, but didn't say anything, and walked with him to the edge of the river. They stood there for a moment in silence, until Smoker spoke. "How are you here? You're not dead too, are you?"

Izou shook his head. "We gods can come here whenever we want. We just… can't cross the river." He had to try really hard not to start crying again. He couldn't bear the thought of never seeing Smoker again.

Izou cleared his throat. "Atmos!"

It didn't took long before his brother came floating towards them on his boat across the river. "Izou? What are you doing here?" Then he saw Smoker and seemed to read Izou's face. "What happened?"

"It's a long story," Izou said, and he couldn't help a tear from rolling down his cheek anyway. "Please, take good care of him."

Smoker sighed. "Well, I guess that's it, then." He hold out the coin to Atmos, seeming to have accepted his fate.

Atmos took it from him and spun it around on his hand. Izou had seen him doing that before. The side the coin would fall on, would show whether the person had been a good or bad person. The coin seemed to spin for a long time, in Izou's opinion, but eventually it stopped and fell.

Izou waited expectantly, but sighed relieved when Atmos gave him a reassuring nod.

"He'll be in good hands," Atmos told him. After that, he took Smoker's hand, and pulled him inside his boat. They slowly drifted away towards the other side.

Izou couldn't hold the tears back anymore, when he saw Smoker leave. "I'll miss you."

Smoker looked at him, and Izou could swear he heard him say "I'll miss you too", but he couldn't be sure. It might have been his imagination.

Izou watched the boat distance itself more and more of him. Tears kept coming as he sat down, watching the water in front of him, until he couldn't see any trace of the boat anymore. And even after that, he kept sitting there. It might have been an hour, or two, Izou really didn't care. He had a long time to think about everything. After the tears stopped, Izou was left with a heart that felt like it was broken into a thousand pieces.

He just kept sitting there, staring into the distance. He felt empty. There was nothing on his mind anymore for a long while. Eventually, he stood up. He had no idea how to move on from here on, but there was one thing he did know.

He would never fall in love with a mortal again.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End.

**Author's Note:**

> To be continued~!  
> (comments are greatly appreciated!)


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